On the big list of things the world needs, as a rule songs about relationships rank somewhere between Kardashians and bacon-flavored Scope. An exception to that rule would be the debut album from Lianne LaHavas.

The well crafted, atmospheric pop songs on “Is Your Love Big Enough?” primarily were written by LaHavas and Matt Hales (who records his own work under the pseudonym ‘Aqualung’). The sultry delivery and jazz-tinged instrumentation recalls Sade, Esperanza Spalding and Corinne Bailey Rae. Add in LaHavas’s fluid Andy Summers-esque guitar technique and you end up with the most interesting hybrid in the current mainstream market.

Throughout “Is Your Love Big Enough?” the vocals are presented in an up close and largely untouched manner. LaHavas’s intimate croon on “No Room for Doubt” is reminiscent of Astrud Gilberto’s hushed vocal on “The Girl from Ipanema.” “No Room for Doubt” also features a type of sympathetic guitar arpeggio LaHavas seems to have mastered.

The album’s title track is a sly gospel rave-up that wouldn’t have been out of place on an Amy Winehouse album. Every part of the song — the guitar, the percussion, the vocals — is spilling over with hooks that beg repeated listening. “Au Cinema” and “They Could Be Wrong” are the type of mysterious pop one would hope The Police could conjure up if they ever reunited, while “Gone” is just spitefully delicious.

Just when you thought it was impossible to hold the public’s attention without an auto-tune or skankified video, Lianne LaHavas defies and overcomes current conventional wisdom. This isn’t the type of tooth-free jazz pop one would expect to hear in a Starbucks on a Saturday morning. These songs and performances come from a true original that will hopefully be allowed to hang around for a while.

Classic album: Making Movies

Artist: Dire Straits

Label: Warner Bros.

Rating: 4.5 stars out of 5

Before Dire Straits started recording songs about MTV and microwave ovens, the musicians recorded songs about making movies and girls on skates.

Released in 1980 when new wave pop ruled the charts, the rock/jazz/country stew concocted by Dire Straits seemed an unlikely hit-making proposition. The success of the debut single “Sultans of Swing” in 1978 — released when disco and punk were trying to out-ugly one another — put the group on the map with rock audiences. The band’s 1979 follow-up album “Communiqu é ” fell a bit flat, so much was riding on “Making Movies.”

Dire Straits was centered around vocalist/guitarist/songwriter Mark Knophler. Knophler’s limited but engaging vocal style, Chet Atkins-inspired guitar work and wryly romantic songs put Dire Straits in a category by themselves. Much like The Who or Pink Floyd, Dire Straits’ sound was so idiosyncratic they were tough to pigeonhole.

The sneering punk press at the time would have been hard pressed to throw stones at Dire Straits, as they weren’t playing the same game.

Put simply, “Making Movies” fared better than “Communiqué ” because the songs and production were far superior. Opening the album with “Tunnel of Love” — one of Knophler’s greatest ballads — was in a sense the laying down of a quiet gauntlet. Most groups would start an album off guns blazing, but Dire Straits operated and existed in their own universe.

If opening the album with a ballad wasn’t crazy enough, the second song (the classic “Romeo and Juliet”) is also a ballad. The wistfulness dripping from these first two songs recalls the story-songs Bruce Springsteen made famous in the mid to late 1970s. Whereas Springsteen tapped into a Jersey Shore-type mysticism, Knophler had the Bard’s most famous character ask Juliet, “You and me babe, how ‘bout it?” — all accompanied by some of the tastiest finger-picked guitar ever recorded.

Things pick up with “Skateaway,” replete with the typically Knophler deadpan vocal and lyrical guitar runs. “Expresso Love” and “Solid Rock” also qualify as top-notch rockers that serve as great counterpoint to the earlier melancholic songs. “Hand in Hand” is more notable as a showcase for Knophler’s guitar and Roy Bittan’s piano, while album closer “Les Boys” is probably the only rock song that took a satirical look at the German club scene.

“Brothers in Arms” will forever be heralded as the biggest Dire Straits album, but “Making Movies” has endured and deserves a listen.

Jon Dawson’s album reviews appear every Thursday in The Free Press. Contact Jon at 252-559-1092 or jon.dawson@kinston.com. Purchase Jon’s book ‘Making Gravy in Public’ at The Free Press office or jondawson.com.